NEW DISCOVERIES IN BETTY HILL'S STAR MAP

written by
Joachim Koch and Hans-Jürgen Kyborg

7. "And he said that he wished I knew more about this..."

OW
it seems easier to understand why the "leader" makes the map disappear when
Betty, despite all the mnemonic aids cannot show where the Earth is. Betty's astronomical
understanding surely cannot cope with the details of our solar system which are in the
map. The "leader" has to realize that it is senseless to show Betty a completely
alien solar system with all its specialities if she cannot recognize elementary things out
of her own system.

Indeed it is difficult for the unaided eye to imagine suddenly looking down upon our
planetary system from somewhere behind Saturn. In this context, Betty's words from the
television program are interesting when she said: "...and it was almost [as if] it
was all realistic - it was almost like looking at the sky and even some of the objects
seemed to be slowly moving..."

Today we can imagine a computerized technology that is able to mix live-recordings of a
video camera with some graphics and to project this combination as a hologram from outside
into a room. Even this would not be necessary, as the entire scene could be easily
modelled - as witnessed by the VOYAGER flypast animations from JPL. In this context one is tempted to speculate if
perhaps this really was "live" what Betty saw. This would mean that the
spaceship had ascended for some time - something that is well known from other abductions
- but in the story there are no hints for such a lift-off at all.

Inside the spaceship, Betty Hill looks at a map where our solar system is shown around
the time of the abduction, just like an actual report of the current mission of the
UFOnauts. All places of activities or interest are connected with lines. At first glance,
it nearly seems as if Betty in her sketch had drawn the shadow part of the planets because
the sunlight comes from the middle of the sketch to the surface of the planets: in the map
version shown in the television program Contact UFO - Alien Abduction, the
"band" across the more distant large circle seems to be somewhat broader and
double just as the equatorial bands on Jupiter. Just below of the foremost big circle
there is a small half-ring slightly intimated which nearly looks as a segment of Saturn's
ring. But because we haven't had Betty's original sketch to examine it can be that except
the bands all other effects within the two big circles were caused by Betty's scrawling
way of drawing.

Perhaps the two giant planets are indeed the endpoint of a "trade route", as
the "leader" named it, right into our solar system when they both hover in this
special alignment (conjunction) in the same space sector. Was it by accident that the UFO
approached the Hills out of the direction Jupiter/Saturn? Perhaps the two planets together
form a kind of "stargate" to higher dimensions and are starting points for jumps
into space where we have no knowledge of so far.

The term "trade route" could be a lexical approximation. The
"leader" could have meant "trade route", not in the sense of
exchanging goods between 2 or more parties, but rather more like "supply line."

All the other connection lines bear an inner logic. To jump to Pallas is the obvious
thing to do because the second largest asteroid has just arrived at the plane of the
ecliptic on the course of its eccentric orbit at the time the Hills were abducted, and
even more, it is not far away from Jupiter. What an ideal encounter.

Since there are no further expedition lines from Earth, this seems to indicate that it
is the planet itself that is the special area of interest. With that, our planet has a
special status in the Hill's pattern of solid lines. The lines to Mercury and beyond could
easily be named the "iron-ore-route" because it started with Mercury, goes with
a slight curve round the Sun to Venus, from there to the asteroid Pretoria and Daphne to
stop at ferrugiuous Psyche. On this route it becomes clear that it is not an unmanipulated
view of the solar system because the size of the sun and planets are changed in favour of
the latter.

This too makes clear that - what so many believed in the past - that the
"map" has no navigational spaceflight purpose for the entities. The
"map" was there only for Betty.

The strong solid line from Jupiter to Mars, aside from perspective enlargement, or
Betty's lack of drawing skill, could be a sign of frequent visits or great importance of
Mars for the UFOnauts. We humans have just started to unravel the enigmas of our neighbor
planet and perhaps we shall know in the next years whether our speculations about the
strong connection lines to Mars were justified or not. One could accept similar reasons
for the expedition lines to Europa, Interamnia, and to Pallas. The theory of placing
artificial probes in a solar system with interesting developments, or to install hidden
observation stations on solid bodies that circle these systems is not new.

A well known scientist called the opinion "'chauvinistic' that life elsewhere must
be similar in general to ours" [17]. Another pillar of this
way of thinking was the claim that the immense distances are an insurmountable obstacle to
cover in "reasonable" lengths of time with "conventional" space flight
facilities.

We do not share these overly-pessimistic opinions which, unnecessarily erect barriers
that block the views and restrict the direction of mental movement.

We cannot leave such statements unanswered. At least we have to add the modifier:
"...as far as we know." From our own past few centuries, we know about the
enormous changes the scientific world views were subjected to. We don't know anything
about extraterrestrial life except from the UFO phenomenon, the stone-aged myths of past
cultures, or the telling of so many people who try in an unconventional way - according to
the ruling paradigms of our present science - to get into the right mood for the cosmic
vibrations they claim to have felt. "Somebody" created us to his/her/its image.
It is not "chauvinistic" at all to ask if "Somebody" has done this
somewhere else.

We have discovered that the pattern of Betty Hill's map corresponds to the actual
constellation of the solar system at that time. The UFOnauts who abducted Betty and Barney
Hill have proved an interest in organic and inorganic substances and bodies here in our
solar system. They themselves are substantially tangible, they need flying equipment and
they research a solar system in a way that makes sense.

This all is not "alien" to us. Surely it would be a great, if not the
greatest shock for those who rule the world, that there is extraterrestrial life that is,
apart of hardly-imaginable advanced technology and consciousness, more similar to us than
we will accept at this time - or are allowed to.